Notes and news

Dr. J. H. Middlemiss has been appointed as the University's representative at the Seventh International Congress of Radiology 1953 in Copenhagen. The First World Conference on Medical Education is to be held at B.M.A. House, London, from August 24th to 25th, 1953. Details are available in the Dean's office. The following prizes have been awarded: David Raynor Prize?M. E. Jackman. Gold Medal for Child Health and Paediatrics?N. G. Sanerkin. Attenborough Silver Medal?K. J. Mullan. Attenborough Bronze Medal?M. D. H. Allen. Russel Cooper Prize?Marguerite E. Pennefather. Phillips Prize?T. F. Harris. Bristol Royal Hospital Gold Medal?F. J. Appelbe and N. J. Sanerkin (jointly).

Since 1975, field work has been carried out for three months each year at Laetolil, a site 43 km south of Olduvai Gorge, in Northern Tanzania.
Fossils from Laetolil have been known for many years, but their age remained uncertain until 1976 when Dr Garniss Curtis of the University of California, Berkeley, dated the fossil-bearing deposits by potassium-argon to the period between 3-75 and 3.59 m.y. They are thus older by 13 million years than the lowest beds at Olduvai Gorge.
A wide variety of mammalian fauna has been found at Laetolil as well as hominid mandibles and teeth representing 20 individuals. Only one lineage is present and this appears to be extremely primitive, but with affinities to the hominid material from the Hadar in northern Ethopia.
No stone tools with evidence of utilization have been found, in spite of intensive searching.
During 1976, numbers of fossil footprints were discovered in the bed of a seasonal river, where they had become exposed by natural erosion. They are imprinted on the surface of a fine-grained volcanic ash, approximately 15 cm thick, laid down in thin layers during a series of eruptions from a volcano to the east of the site. This level is 5 m below the volcanic tuff dated 3.59 m.y.
Among the mamallian tracks there is a trail of five prints which appear to be hominid. They are bipedal, short and very broad. The stride is also short, no more than 3 I cm, measured from heel to

Medieval pottery research group
The large-scale excavations of recent years, especially those in urban situations, have resulted in a greatly increased corpus of Saxon and medieval pottery. The problem of how to process and then how to present large quantities of stratified pottery in an archaeological report was the subject of a three-day conference held at Knuston heel. Two of the prints have been cleared of overlying deposit by natural erosion, but the remaining three are still filled with matrix. The two exposed prints are 15 cm long and so broad that the width is 72 per cent of the length. The right and left feet can be distinguished by the imprint of the big toe (PL. ~x b shows the left foot on the left side, followed by the right foot).
The tracks indicate a rolling and probably slowmoving gait, with the hips swivelling at each step, as opposed to the free-striding gait of modern man.
Since it is estimated that the length of the foot represents approximately 15 per cent of body height, this individual would have been no more than 1.20 m or 4 ft tall.
Tracks of elephant, birds, black and white rhinoceros, three species of giraffe, a sabre-tooth cat, hyaena, many small carnivores and a wide variety of antelopes occur at the same site. There is also a trail of six prints which appear to have been made by a fairly large knuckle-walking primate.
No remains of such an animal are known in the fossil record, although bones and teeth of all other mammals whose footprints are preserved are present among the fossils.
Although the geological study of the area is still incomplete, it seems likely that the footprints were made by animals travelling to water holes across freshly fallen volcanic ash, and were rapidly covered by succeeding falls, before they were obliterated by wind or rain.
The entrance stones at Knowth, Ireland

PLATES XVI-XVII
The large mound at Knowth (Site I ) is delimited by kerb-stones most of which are decorated and it covers two passage tombs. When the first of these tombs, the Western Tomb, was discovered in 1967 it was noted that the art on the kerb-stone before the entrance differed from that occurring on any of the other exposed kerb-stones (Eogan, 1967). Basically the art consists of a series of lines parallel to each other on the outer face. The four outer members are in the shape of an inverted U. The fifth member in from the edges continues along on the fourth side, the bottom, and almost joins up with the other vertical end. Within this there are two inverted L-shaped members and a straight horizontal line. On the flattish top there are short lines longitudinally placed. But the unusual feature of the decoration is a vertical line down the centre of the stone. This cuts across the main design. The art was formed by pocking but at some points over the unpocked areas there are broad impressions that appear to have been executed by a chisel. The stone is a green grit, it is 3-20 m long, 0.70 m in maximum width and 1.12 m in height (PL. x w a ) .
When the entrance to the second passage tomb in Site I was discovered in 1968 the kerb-stone before the entrance was missing (Eogan, 1969). Subsequent work established that this area was a place of intensive Early Christian settlement while underlying it was a ditch that was possibly dug during the earlier part of the 1st millennium AD. Due to the complex nature of this area it was only at the end of the 1976 season that the basal fill of the ditch was removed. When this was done the missing entrance stone was found lying in the bottom. It very likely fell in shortly after the digging of the ditch. When the stone was removed from the ditch it was found that both the outer face and the top were decorated and of particular interest was the fact that a vertical line was present. This stone is also a green grit. Some flakes were knocked off the back but otherwise the surfaces are natural. T h e outer surface is uneven and there are natural pits in it and also on the top. The stone is 2'95 m long, 0.81 m in maximum width and 1.16 m in height. The art was formed by pocking (PL. X V I~, XVII).
Unlike the Western entrance stone the vertical line extends over the top, furthermore it does not cut across a design but forms a dividing line between designs. This stone is, therefore, the more elaborately decorated of the two entrance stones but despite this the art of both is fairly similar. On the outer face of the portion to the left of the line (as one views the stone) there is a circle in the middle. This is surrounded by a more angular gapped member and in turn this is enclosed within an 'irregular' square. Out from this there are five inverted U-shaped designs as well as a shorter member that extends down the side and across part of the bottom. There is also some pocking towards the left-hand corner. To the right of the line there are four inverted U-shaped members, part of another and also a short horizontal line. This portion of the stone is rough around the centre, this seems to be a natural feature and not due to subsequent damage.
On top, to the left of the line the decoration consists of an incomplete U-shaped design, a concentric circle or spiral, a short line and two small areas of pocking. T o the right there are four Ushaped designs.
The presence of a vertical line on both stones may indicate that they served as markers for the entrances. In this connexion it is interesting to note that two of the kerb-stones at Newgrange also have a vertical line (O'Kelly, 1973, Pls. 33, 34). One is the entrance stone before the tomb (No. I); the other is a kerb-stone directly opposite it on the other side of the mound (No. 52). A few years ago Professor M. J. O'Kelly investigated an area behind No. 52 but no evidence for an entrance to a tomb came to light. It should also be recalled that one of the kerb-stones of the large Dowth " passage tomb also has a vertical line (Leask, 1933, 163, No. I , Fig. 2). This is on the eastern side, the side opposite the entrances to the opened chambers. It is not known if there is a tomb here. It may also be recalled that one of the kerb-stones (No. 30) of the multiple cist cairn at Lyles Hill, Co. Antrim has a medial band of decoration (Evans, 1953, ~~ Fig. 10 BC supported by Clark (1973) to the extent that the latter considers increasing desiccation in the Tenere (Tafassasset) after 2000 BC to have caused some of the population to settle in the better-watered highlands (of Kir), others favour greater antiquity. GrCbCnart (1975) particularly mentions some of his own material as being probably far older than the Horse Period. Roset (1971) shows a like tendency, while cautioning against too-hasty interpretation of seemingly ancient portrayals, notably of the giraffe, in itself a puzzle of which the writer is well aware.
Whether or not most Saharan researchers operate according to the criteria of Anati ( I 976) or Striedter (1976) will clearly affect deductions as to relative chronology. Yet only avant-garde scientific techniques or reasoning, capable of equating such art with some untried palaeo-ecological facet, may resolve the ultimate conundrum. Now, in a broader context than that of Kir, Gabriel (1976) sets the pace in relation to what should eventually provide results of supreme importance. His so-called 'stone sites' of East Central Sahara-mere flattish piles 0.5 m to 4 m in diameter, up to 0.3 m high and containing charcoal or ash-seem likely to relate to nomadic pastoralists. Numerous rock paintings indicate that the stone sites are probably fireplaces used by these Saharan neolithic cattle-breeders. The author suggests convincingly that further study should yield new possibilities for determining their origin and chronology, as well as those of the Bovidian Period rock art itself.
Theirfloruit, in so far as indicated by 19 radiocarbon dates, seems to have been between 5730 and 5430 BP, the most useful results coming from the NW and SE parts of the total distribution zones, these being around El Golea (30' 43" 02' 52'E) and Wau en Namus (25' IO'N 17O 35'E) respectively. Around 5400 BP the start of desiccation of the Central Saharan plains (cf. Sutton, 1977) will have caused the inhabitants to retire into marginal or mountain regions.
If it be still impossible to date the Touaret elephants-the most southerly carvings of this Paleonematology: some recent evidence from neolithic Bulgaria style yet known (P. Huard, pers. comm.)-the writer feels bound to call attention to one further area. In NW Sahara cases have occurred of a single engraved menhir, in the centre of a line of lesser standing stones, placed to E or SE of a tumulus containing human remains (&&rate, 1943 When a recumbent pillar-like stone bears rock art, this is likely to be positioned apparently at random: and certainly not the right way up, should the pillar be later erected as a menhir. It follows that one or more carvings on a menhir erected beside a tumulus have probably been executed as part of the funerary embellishment and should be contemporary with the tumulus and its contents. Nematodes belong to the family Heteroderidae, and are parasites which spend part of their life cycle within the roots of plants. They initially hatch as larvae from eggs which are found within small (less than I mm in diameter), brown, round or lemon-shaped cysts in the soil. The larvae move from the soil and invade plant roots, feed on plant nutrients and mature into worm-like creatures. When adult, the female protrudes from the root it inhabits, swells into the cyst form, and is fertilized by the male. The eggs develop within the female whose skin thickens and turns brown. On the death of the female it drops into the soil, with the fully developed eggs still retained in the skin-i.e., the cyst. The larvae hatch from the eggs, escape from the cyst (the dead female) and repeat the cycle by invading other plant roots.

PLATE XIX
Nematodes are of interest to the archaeologist for three reasons. First, many species are parasitic upon specific crops, and so it is not difficult in most cases to identify the crop which was their host. Secondly, as nematode populations can reach very high levels (figures of 1-2 cysts per gram of soil are common) if a crop is grown too often on the same land, they can cause crop yields to decline or even fail. Consequently, the abundance of nematodes in an archaeological context can provide an approximate indication of the intensity of the prevailing crop cultivation. Thirdly, like pollen, nematode cysts can survive in a recognizable form for a long time.
Remains of nematode cysts were commonly found in the organic debris recovered by froth flotation (Jarman, Legge and Charles, 1972) from the neolithic settlement of Chevdar in West Bulgaria. The site is a small tell which was occupied in the late sixth and early fifth millennium bc. Emmer, six-row barley and vetch were each grown as separate crops (Dennell, 1976); flax was also present but not deliberately cultivated (Dennell, 1974). The main animal resources were N O T E S A N D N E W S sheep, goat, cattle, pig and red deer; dog and cat were also present (Dennell, 1977).
The nematodes were identified as either Heterodwa hmdecalis and/or Hetwodera a v m e (strain 3): both parasitize wheat and barley and can cause crop failures. Although nematode cysts have been previously recorded in Anglo-Saxon (Webley, 1974), Roman (Webley, unpublished), and iron age (Davidson and Curtis, 1973) contexts, these specimens are by far the oldest yet found, and demonstrate that cysts can survive in a recognizable form for 7-8,000 years. Microphotographs show that the vaginal slit (9p long) crossing the bridge separating the two fenestra of the female reproductive organ is still clear and intact. Since cysts are normally found in the soil of infested fields, the inhabitants probably brought these specimens onto the settlement by accident in infested soil which was either used for building purposes, or, more likely, attached to footwear or agricultural implements such as digging sticks. Even today, nematode-free land is most commonly infected by chance contamination from farm machinery.
The type and abundance of these specimens suggest that the main cereal crops had been infested, most probably as a result of over-cropping of the arable land. The suggestion finds some support when the local surroundings and duration of the settlement are considered. The only readily available arable land at Chevdar would have comprised a small semicircular amphitheatre of soil, a few hundred acres in area totally enclosed by a ridge of low hills and the river Toplnica (Dennell and Webley, 1975). Because arable land was so restricted, the inhabitants would have had little opportunity to rest the arable land by extensive fallows, or by taking other areas into cultivation. One of the reasons why the settlement was abandoned after a relatively brief occupation may well have been that crop yields declined to uneconomic levels through parasitic infestations.
It is of interest to note that no nematodes were found after a thorough search of the organic debris from Kazanluk, IOO km east of Chevdar.
Although Kazanluk relied upon the same resources as Chevdar (Dennell, 1977), it developed into a much larger settlement, and was occupied for a longer period, from the Early Neolithic to the end of the Eneolithic. The absence of nematodes at Kazanluk may indicate that the inhabitants, unlike those of Chevdar, were able to prevent parasitic infestations, since the settlement lies in a broad valley where there are greater opportunities for allowing land to rest for longer intervals between crops, by fallowing or exploiting fresh areas of arable land. At present, it is relatively easy to obtain data on the typeof crop agricultureassociated with a prehistoric settlement, but considerably more difficult to gauge the intensity of cropping. Nematode remains provide one useful source of information on this topic. In our opinion, their value is best realized when they are considered in relation to other types of evidence-particularly, botanical data on the type of crops, settlement evidence on the duration and continuity of occupation, and local studies on the location and agricultural potential of a settlement's environs. Aerial reconnaissance: recent results, 45

PLATE XX
The photographs that have prompted this note were taken in a dry spell of weather in August 1970. They show (PL. xx) a group of barrows, remarkable both for the very number that are visible-over 200 may be distinguished within the limits of the plate-and for the fact that each burial is surrounded by a ditch in the form of a square, instead of the circle so common to barrows in southernBritain.
The existence of square barrows on the Yorkshire Wolds has long been known: a number were explored in the nineteenth century, before the advent of scientific excavation : comparatively few are now visible as earthworks. One of the largest groups is that named the Danes' Graves (TA 018632), on Driffield Wold, now largely within Nafferton parish, where not inconsiderable earthworks survived at the time of the first mapping of the district by Ordnance Surveyors, though much less is visible today. The number of graves has been estimated at over 500. However, it is aerial photography more than any other factor that is leading to a better appreciation of the distributionpattern of square barrows than has been possible hitherto. The main areas of concentration lie in and around the shallow valley of the Gypsey Race, especially in the neighbourhood of Rudston and of Burton Fleming. Thus, there are large groups of such barrows to E of Burton Fleming (c. TA

I O~Z O ) ,
to N of Rudston (TA 096694), on Grindale Field (TA 154713), while the Danes' Graves already mentioned lie only 9 km to the SW (TA 018632). Other important groups are at Arras (SE 930413) and at Garton-Wetwang (c. SE 953600), known from excavations in 1815-17 and in 1965 and subsequent years respectively, but no traces of these are ordinarily visible from the air. The sites, which are mainly on chalk gravel, having only a thin covering of plough soil, are particularly prone to damage by ploughing. The distribution* shows a marked preference for land at about 60 m above Ordnance Datum: the higher ground towards the W margin of the Wolds seems to have been largely avoided, and there are only a few not very large groups by the N margin.
Dr I. M. Stead, who has been studying these barrows for some years, has shown that the majority fall within the last two centuries BC (Stead, 1965 and1976): they closely match the square enclosures known to occur in some numbers in Champagne in La T h e contexts. The Yorkshire barrows are commonly linked with the Parisi.
Scattered groups of square barrows have been recognized on the central and southern Wolds, and outside the Wolds, particularly in the Vale of Pickering, where, for example, a group of 32 occurs near Slingsby (SE 707246). At Slingsby, besides the square barrows, there are marks which seem to be closely spaced graves that have never * Full details will be given in the forthcoming

Inventory of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) on prehistoric and Roman remains in the East Riding.
been surrounded by a ditch. Some are aligned E-W, some N-S. About half the barrows here lie between two parallel lines of ditch, extending roughly E-W. These ditches have evidently been recut or realigned, several times. One of them turns into a pit-alignment. Excavation here might reveal an unusually interesting sequence. Square enclosures which seem to be of the same character are found further afield on river gravels of the Trent and Ouse, but until evidence of graves is forthcoming, caution is necessary in identifying such enclosures as barrows: other explanations are possible. In Scotland, closely similar square enclosures have recently been noted near Forteviot, in Perthshire, and in the valley of the Lunan Water (Angus); within some of these, there are marks strongly suggestive of graves.
PL. xx shows a remarkable group of these barrows recorded in the course of reconnaissance in 1970. The group lies just outside the east margin of the Wolds, at the S end of Carnaby parish, and thus some 8 km S of the main concentration. The precise site is a low gravel ridge (centre at TA 130623), about 10 m above Ordnance Datum. The barrows are clustered together (FIG. I ) on the crest of the ridge where the crop is slightly darker in tone than elsewhere in the field. Both ditches and graves are visible since the crop growing over them is lighter coloured than the normal growth on the ridge. Away from the crest, the crop has largely turned colour and no such distinction occurs: how much further the burial-ground may have extended on either side it is thus impossible to say. The visible remains may be only a small part of the burial area, and what is true of one burialground may be true of the whole pattern: that Holderness is at present a blank on distributionmaps may reflect lack of knowledge rather than of barrows. The low ground E of the Wolds is largely composed of glacial deposits which overlie and mask the chalk. Any land slightly higher than the rest, like gravel 'islands' surrounded by clay, invites special scrutiny.
Detailed study of the barrows in FIG. I shows there to be a few squares appreciably larger than the average. In the neighbourhood of these are clustered a considerable number of small squares of less than half their size. This is seen most clearly in both the southern and the northern groups in the Figure. Elsewhere, along the ridge, there is a preponderance of barrows of middle size. The matter deserves further study, both here and in other large Only occasionally do the cropmarks enable the alignment of the graves to be appreciated, but a number seem to be set N-S. As to the contents of the graves, the degree of preservation can only be determined by excavation: much will depend upon the effect of the ground-water, here probably somewhat acid, in contrast to the alkaline surface water of the chalk. Granted reasonable preservation, excavation may reveal both grave-goods and osteological remains of an entire cemetery.
There are some 220 barrows in FIG. I . HOW many more graves the burial-ground comprised cannot be estimated. A number of faint, elongated marks around the edge of the group may be graves, their enclosing ditches having been reduced by ploughing, or they may be quite incidental disturbances. However, whether only 220 graves, or even twice that number, this cannot represent the burial place of a community of any size over a very long period. At 3 or 4 deaths a year, these burial-grounds will have served for barely a century. Were all adults buried in this fashion? Of what size were the communities? Where are their settlements to be sought? Such questions, vital to an understanding of the structure of iron age communities, make a fitting end to this note.* The Cambridge M.Phi1. degree in archaeology A one-year course in archaeology leading to the degree of Master of Philosophy will be established with effect from I October 1978. The special regulations will be as follows : (a) a thesis, of not morethan 10,000 wordsinlength (inclusive) on an approved topic; and (b) three written papers as follows : (i) The principles of archaeology (ii) The practice of archaeology (iii) Aspects of Old World archaeology Paper (iii) will include the following sections, from which every candidate, subject to the approval of the Degree Committee, shall select one, on which he will be required to answer three questions: (a) Palaeolithic archaeology (b) Origins and early development of agriculture and stock breeding (c) Mesopotamian archaeology (d) South Asian archaeology (e) African archaeology (f) Later European prehistory (g) The archaeology of early historic Europe Finally, a practical examination designed to test the candidate's powers of understanding evidence from survey and fieldwork, and of recognizing and describing archaeological material related to the section of paper (iii) selected by him. The examination shall include, at the discretion of the examiners, an oral examination upon the thesis and written papers.
The syllabus of the course of study is set out in more detailed form in the Cambridge University Reporter, Vol. An early Norwegian lyre from Rsldal, Hordaland (Norway)

XvIIIb
The surfaces of four panels of timber from the Norwegian stavkirke at Reldal, now preserved and exhibited in the Historical Museum, Bergen, constitute the fragmentary remains of pictorial wall-paintings from the interior of the early medieval church. These painted scenes, which date from approximately AD I IOO,* are of uncertain iconography because of their incomplete con-dition, but they clearly depict a number of standing figures. Two of these, although truncated at both knees and waists, seem to represent a musical scene, with the clearer of the two holding a fivestringed round-lyre and what may be a bow.
The identity of the performer, who wears a 12r-l c A A L , JUTLAND, DENMARK.

Fig. 2. Early European lyres, as shown in the art of the eleventh and twelfth centuries
plain red knee-length tunic, is not yet known. His instrument has a plain white surface outlined in black, and is held in an inverted position with only the superstructure and none of the resonator surviv-ing (PL. XVIII~). This superstructure takes the form of a smoothly rounded arch some 18.5 cm across, tapering inwards towards a 'waist', and bears a rowof small black dots representing five tuning-pegs, each of which is evidently to be associated with one of the five parallel strings. A light green bar is depicted horizontally across the strings somewhat below the widest point of the arch, and might be identified as the crude representation of a bow, although it is apparently hairless and rather more distant from the bridge than one would normally expect. Apart from this there is in fact little indication, in the absence of any hands (or feet*) in the appropriate places, that the instrument is in process of being either tuned or played. The significance of this instrument is readily apparent. First, the form of its superstructure, though of the usual inverted pear-shape, is quite unique in the rounded simplicity of its design (FIG. ra). The least exotically decorated of known medieval lyre-depictions in northern Scandinavia are otherwise those of the Norum and Heddal instruments of c. AD I 100 and 1250 respectively,t which both, even so, possess some of the peculiar embellishments of the others (FIG. Ib-f). The Rsldal scene is, moreover, the first stringedmusical scene unrelated to the tale of Gunnar to have come to light, and it may well be that the mundane form of its instrument is that of the real Norwegian lyre, freed from the requirements of specifically illustrating the anomalies in the story of Gunnm i Ormeg&rden, Gunnar in the Snake Pit.: The crowned and pointed arches (and other numerous curiosities perhaps) that have until now been frequently taken to be characteristic of early medieval Norwegian and Swedish lyres may now be seen in a somewhat different perspective. § The implications of this for Scandinavian stringed instrument organology are considerable, particularly with regard to the later Viking and early medieval periods (c. mid-tenth to midthirteenth centuries). It means that the common lyre in Norway could indeed have been a fairly conventional European round-lyre, with a small number of strings (five or six), and perhaps bowed, just as elsewhere (FIG. 24. Since Scandinavia in the post-Roman Iron Age and early Viking period had been in close economic and cultural contact with the rest of Europe, the existence of conformity in the North to such a general European tradition would not be unduly surprising. shallow covering of 15cm of earth. The skull, vertebrae and most of the right side of the skeleton were missing but the remaining parts appear to have been undisturbed. The surviving bones were stained superficially a dark brick-red colour with ruddle and associated with them were a number of similarly stained ivory rods and fragments of an ivory armlet ring. The skull of a mammoth was also found in apparent association with the human remains. Buckland inferred from the associated finds and the comparatively slender appearance of the bones that the skeleton was that of a female and so it became known as the 'Red Lady' of Paviland (Buckland, 1823 ;North, 1942). Buckland'screationist beliefs did not, however, allow him to ascribe any great antiquity to the remains which are now '43 recognized as those of a ceremonial Upper Palaeolithic burial, probably of a young male about 25.

A new date for Goat's Hole Cave
In 1912, with the assistance of the AbbC Breuil, W. J. Sollas, also Professor of Geology at Oxford, cut a transverse section across the floor of the cave, 9 m from the entrance and 2'4m in depth. He found an implement-bearing deposit, a reddishbrown earth crowded with angular and rounded fragments of limestone, which extended down to a depth of from 1.2 m to 1-5 m and had been much disturbed. He noted that the sea, which occasionally dashes into the cave during storms, had destroyed the section left by Buckland, reworking or removing much of the original deposit (Sollas, 1913). Sollas completely excavated the remainder of the cave, finding a few more human bones (not belonging to the skeleton found by Buckland) as well as some 700-800 flint and chert tools which remain today the most important collection of earlier Upper Palaeolithic artifacts known from Britain.
Sollas's excavations, like Buckland's, failed to reveal the existence of any stratification in the deposits so that the extent of the occupation of the cave can only be inferred from an analysis of the tool typology. Mousterian, Early, Middle and Upper Aurignacian, Proto-Solutrean, and much later Creswellian industries are all represented (see Garrod, 1926;Grimes, 1951;Sollas, 1913). McBurney (1965) likened the coarse steepscrapers, plano-convex spearheads and wide blades from Goat's Hole to the collection from Ilsen Hohle near Leipzig, dated on palaeobotanical evidence to about 30,000 bp. More recently, Mellars (1974) has discussed the continental affinities of British early Upper Palaeolithic industries in similar chronological terms based on direct radiocarbon dating evidence.
The faunal remains that were found in Goat's Hole are characteristic of the later Pleistocene when the climate was cold and dry, producing tundra and steppe conditions and thus encouraging grazing animals such as reindeer and horse. Apart from Vulpes, Meles and Sus, which were probably recent intrusions, there were abundant remains of Equus caballus and Ursus spelaeus (which is more Iiely to be U. arctos; KurtEn, 1969). Bos primigenius was common as were Coelodonta antiquitatis and Rangifer tarandus. Megaloceros giganteus and Canis lupus were present but not common while Mammuthus primigmius was rare.
The disturbed and unstratified nature of the deposits in the cave meant that it was not possible to decide to which of the Upper Palaeolithic cultures the human skeleton should be attributed. Accordingly, while preparing the Catalogue of fossil hominids for publication by the British Museum (Natural History), Kenneth Oakley arranged to have a sample of bone from the Paviland skeleton dated directly by radiocarbon at the British Museum in Bloomsbury. The resulting date of 18,460 5 340 bp obtained from collagen separated from leg bones (BM-374;Oakley, 1968) pinpoints the burial to about the time of the Last Glacial maximum when according to geological evidence (Bowen, 1970) the glacier ice was only about 6 km north of Paviland. John (1971) has proposed a slightly different position for the ice margin of the South Wales coastal belt as a whole at this time but on either interpretation Goat's Hole would still have remained accessible, at the very least in summer. Indeed, eustatic lowering of the sea-level must have rendered physical access to the cave easier than it is today.
Another date of 18,000 + 1400 -1200 bp (Birm-146) on collagen from a mammoth carpal bone from Ffynnon Beuno cave, Tremeirchion, Clywd, which also contained Aurignacian and Proto-Solutrean artifacts (Rowlands, 1971), would seem to provide further evidence for the supposition that these industries continued in Britain long after they had been superseded in France and elsewhere. Van Nedervelde et al. (1973) have warned, however, that the archaeological value of this radiocarbon date is limited since the precise stratigraphic position of the bone is not known; it came from a collection held locally since 1885.
One of us has argued elsewhere (Molleson, 1976) that the date on the skeleton from Paviland does not necessarily date the occupation of the cave. In an attempt to verify this, a humerus of Bos primigenius was obtained from the small Sollas Collection held at the National Museum of Wales and submitted to the British Museum Research Laboratory for radiocarbon dating. The result obtained using collagen separated from this bone was 27,600 f 1300 bp (BM-1367). This date compares closely with the dates for the earlier Upper Palaeolithic from Kent's Cavern discussed by Davidson (1974) and is much easier to reconcile with that part of the stone tool collection from Goat's Hole which appears to be typologically early.

Selected radiocarbon dates f o r the Earlier Upper Palaeolithic in Britain
In summary, the evidence now points to a late use of Goat's Hole as a burial site, probably after it had ceased to be an occupation site (Molleson, 1977). Most of the stone tools would belong to the earlier period of occupation spanning an unknown time before and after about 28,000 bp, perhaps as much as 10,000 radiocarbon years earlier than the burial itself. The evidence for Paviland Man's own culture must rest on the style of the artifacts found with the skeleton and on the nature of the burial with its seemingly accompanying Mammuthus

Home-baking in Roman Italy: a footnote I n her recent article on home-baking in Roman
Italy, Dr Joan Frayn discussed the baking of bread and cakes on the hearth, under a cover known to Cat0 and other classical writers as a testu or testum: 'an earthenware crock which was placed over the food . . . in the manner of the "chickenbrick" sometimes used nowadays' (Frayn 1978,  29-30). There can be no doubt that the vessel was a cover, for Cat0 (De Agri Cultura, chs. 74 and 75) twice used the words sub testu. An alternative method of baking on the hearth was to place the loaf on leaves or a broken tile (tegula quassa is the phrase used by Ovid, F a s t i v~, 316). In both cases, the bread was baked by covering it with embers from the fire.
Both methods belong to a long tradition in rural Italy of baking bread and cakes on the hearth. Cato's testu or testum can hardly be other than a forerunner of the testi documented in parts of Liguria and Emilia-Romagna from the thirteenth century to the present day. Testi are flat-topped covers with a sloping side and at least one handle (FIG. I , nos. 1-3). They have a coarse fabric and were formed by hand or turned on a slow wheel. The earliest example from an archaeological context recorded by Professor Tiziano Mannoni, who has made a detailed study of the subject, belongs to the fifteenth century (Mannoni, 1965 ;1970, 304;1975, 34). However, Mannoni also notes that they were mentioned by the thirteenth-century Bolognese writer, Pietro de Crescenzi: 'miglime k p e l (pane) che k cotto nel fmno, imperocchk tutto egualmente si cuoce; ma pello che 2 cotto in testi k piggime' (bread baked in an oven is better, because it cooks evenly; that baked in testi is not so good) (Mannoni 1970, 30411, quoting Crescenzi, Libm ruralium commodmum). Thus, the practice in rural communities without access to a professional baker of making bread on the hearth under an earthenware cover was described not only in the Roman period but also in the thirteenth century, and is represented in the archaeological record from the fifteenth century onwards. It seems likely, therefore, that the method was used continuously for at least two millennia.
Ovid's reference to baking on a broken tile recalls an even older tradition: that of baking hearth-cakes on earthenware dishes, known variously as testelli (in Liguria) and piatti (in northern Apulia). Testelli are shallow dishes with a curved or I 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Cm

I :4. (After Mannoni I970, PI. 111)
flaring side (FIG. I, nos. 4 7 ) . They were formed on a pad or slow wheel. The fabric is coarse and most examples are crudely made. In recent times, testelli were produced at home and fired in a clamp. They were used mainly for cooking focaccette (chestnut flour buns). The bun was placed on the dish and baked in the embers. Mannoni has assembled unequivocal archaeological evidence to show that testelli were manufactured in Liguria from the late Roman period to the present day (Mannoni, 1965;1970, 304;1975, 25 and 33-4).
He notes, too, that similar dishes occur in a late bronze age context at Zignano, near La Spezia (Mannoni, 1975, 34"). In addition to theLigurian material published by Mannoni, we should note recent finds of testelli at the late Roman settlement of Savignone (Fossati et al., 1976, 311) and in thirteenth-to fourteenth-century levels at Anteggi, near Chiavari (Cabona et al., 1976,300). Elsewhere in north and central Italy, objects resembling testelli have been found in an early medieval context at Luni sul Mignone, in Lazio (Whitehouse D. n.d.); in late medieval deposits at Ascianello (Vannini, 1974, 95-6) and at Pistoia (Blake, 1974, 165), in Tuscany; and in fourteenth-and fifteenthcentury units at Gubbio (Whitehouse D. 1976,259) and at Valdiponte (Blake, 1974,165-6), in Umbria. It is significant that, like the recent distribution, the Roman and medieval find-spots are predominantly rural.
The testelli of north and central Italy have a family likeness to the piatti from late bronze-or iron-age sites in the south (Whitehouse R.,197' Piatti are shallow dishes with a curving side and four small lugs projecting from the rim. The inside is decorated with a cross and four dots, one in each of the angles at the intersection, made with a finger before the vessel was fired. At Manaccora, in north Apulia, local workmen in 1931-3 recognized iron age examples as piatti 'for baking focaccia, a thin disc-shaped bread much favoured by the modern inhabitants of Monte Gargano' (Baumgartel, 1953, 9). Here, as in Liguria, the custom of using earthenware dishes for baking hearth-cakes seems to have persisted until the twentieth century.
The tradition of baking bread and cakes with testi, testelli and piatti reminds us of another Italian utensil with an extraordinarily long history: the milk-boiler, which appeared in the Bronze Age and was still available in Naples in the 19409 (Whitehouse R., 1970, 55").
Although these objects were used mainly in the countryside and made at home, in recent times they were also produced in the factory, sometimes for a new function. Mannoni (1970,317) notes the existence in Liguria from the eighteenth century of testi with an internal glaze and of more recent copper vessels of the same form, also called testi, which are used for cooking fmimta, a traditiolial dish made of ground chick-peas. However, even these adaptations are obsolete and by the midtwentieth century home-made earthenware had disappeared from all but the remotest rural communities.

Climate and history: international conference
An international conference on climate and history will take place at the Climatic Research Unit Potential contributors and participants are requested to notify as soon as possible but, in any case, Biblia a-biblia I am glad Mr Mytum has written about the publication crisis, though I don't agree with his advocacy of hybrid microfiche (mixed letterpress and microfiche) or full microfiche publication as a soIution.
May I deal first with his recommendations and then turn to the wider issue of recent official pronouncements on archaeological publication?
Microfiche publication has one outstanding merit and that is the saving of space which it can achieve. Even in the hybrid form, it requires such a reduced allocation of shelf-space that librarians  Myres (1977), might seem an obvious candidate for fiche reproduction, except that many archaeologists are attempting to classify a particular example (often in the form of a drawing) by rapid visual comparison. A simple enough process with the conventional book, where one flips backwards and forwards, using fingers as temporary markers, but infinitely more cumbersome if one has to insert microfiche sheets into a reader and look at the equivalent of one page at a time. A similar disadvantage holds for the more usual archaeological report, where one might wish to look, virtually simultaneously, at a fold-out plan, a particular section, the finds from a distinct layer, and the text describing the stratigraphical and chronological conclusions. It would be just possible, I suppose, with several copies of a fiche-book and a battery of readers, but that would be an expansio ad absurdum.
Mr Mytum's espousal of the process was prompted by the recommendations of the D.O.E. report Principles of publication in rescue archaeology (I 975), commonly known as the Frere Report after the chairman of the working party which produced it. Levels I11 and IV have now achieved a place in current archaeological jargon, but the recommendations in the report ('addressed not only to the Department, but also at large to academic and professional colleagues and institutions'-p. ii) have been subjected to very little in the way of critical analysis. There has now appeared a second D.O.E. report, Excavation records : techniques in use by the Central Excavation Unit (Jefferies, 1977), which sets out the officially recommended method of achieving a Level I11 archival record. It is an intimidating document, complete with a small glossary, but is basically concerned, as I see it, with the systematic and uniform recording of excavation data (structures and finds), their conversion to a Level I11 archive which will give the essential material for a Level IV report, and the mechanics of making the archive available for the specialist worker.
The theory behind Level I11 and Level IV is the supposed uniqueness of sites, so that excavation is a non-repeatable operation ('replication', in the A N T I Q U I T Y 148 present jargon, is impossible) and consequently recording must be in sufficient detail to allow total recall, if some later worker wishes to reconsider the site. But the supporting detail and specialist reports are now so vast and costly to print that the published report can only be a synthesized description with relevant supporting data (Level IV), while the full record win remain as an archive (Level 111), to be reproduced by Xerox, computer print-out, microfiche, or some such on-demand method. In combination the two Levels would be the equivalent of the traditional 'Pitt-Rivers' report, relic-tables and all, which permits the reassessment of a site, e.g . Hawkes (1948). . . . .
The theory is attractive and intellectually persuasive-but so is Marxism. All I would like to ask is, what is meant by a synthesized report? I always thought that excavation reports were intended to be syntheses, with detailed statements of supporting evidence where necessary. I have a nasty suspicion that perhaps synoptic reports are meant-brief statements of findings and conclusions, with huge factual tables of layers, structural details, finds, etc. relegated to the archive for consultation by the specialist. But if so, is this what archaeologists really want ? And are there specialists in postholes or stratigraphy who are bursting to consult archives? And are archaeological data always so objective that they can be regarded as immutable facts capable of being processed into an archive? Or are they, at least so far as stratigraphy is concerned, sometimes the result of subjective interpretation by the person digging and recording the layers ? All sorts of questions like this spring to mind, and I would like to hear what other archaeologists think, before a dogma of uniform recording of unselected trivia is forced upon the unsuspecting young.

A unique (?Roman) burial
Nearly 20 years ago, a young Sardinian scholar published, in a section labelled 'tombe romane', a curious multiple burial found at Villasor, some 25 km NW of Cagliari (Diana, 1959, 322). The burial consisted of the skeletons of six adults arranged with heads inward, feet outward, radiating around a central point; a large terracotta vessel (a 'tinozza') covered the skulls of the six individuals (FIG. I).
Parallels for this method of disposing of the dead are difficult to find . Allcroft (1927, 547) gives several apparent examples under the heading of sepulchral rings; but, on close examination, they turn out not to be exact (or even close) parallels. Several Anglo-Saxon burials present a similar arrangement: at Shoeburyness, Essex

Fig. I . Reconstruction of the multiple burial of Villasor (drawn by Scam)
Leaving the British Isles for the continent, we can follow Allcroft to Merovingian France; but, from the fuller discussion of Salin (1952, 198) we can see that, although some Merovingian burials do radiate around a central point, they are not multiple burials, hence not parallels for the Villasor burial. However, we do seem now to be in the proper part of the world to find the object of our quest, although such parallels do not abound in great number. G. Bailloud (1964) several times discusses multiple burials, arranged in a fashion similar to the Villasor burial, mostly, however, with the feet toward the centre.* To these we can add several others.   (Bailloud, 1964, 139-430;Bailloud and Mieg de Boofzheim, 1955, especially 190-6). I n recent years, scholars have become increasingly aware of the relationships between prehistoric Sardinia and France, including the S-0-M culture. Thus, for example, Baltolu (1972, 68-75) points to the close relationship he sees between an 'allCe couverte' at Mala Carruca (Alh dei Sardi) and similar S-0-M monuments; although Baltolu's basic point is correct, he was unfortunate in his choice of a starting-point : the monument at Mala Carruca is a Giants' Tomb, not an allCe couverte (RSP, 1974, 263). Other similarities are pointed out by Lilliu (1970, 5 5 ;1972, 24,95), who more frequently refers to Bougon Bougon-Chassey, or Chassey-Bougon (1972, 23, 24, 9? 124, cf. 66, 69, 96;1966, 38, p)-but there IS S-0-M as well as Chassey material at Bougon (Bailloud and Mieg de Boofzheim, 1955, 110, 198).
What then of the Villasor burial? Is it a reflexion, two millennia or more later, of an S-0-M mode of burial? What of the Anglo-Saxon and Merovingian examples even more removed in time than the Sardinian? Are all of them independent developments ? Or, perhaps, the Villasor 'tinozza' is not Roman-but it is highly unlikely that Diana or his mentor, Lilliu, would have called a thirdmillennium vessel a Roman one.* For the present, the Villasor burial must remain enigmatic, although it may indicate still one more connexion between early Sardinia and prehistoric France. t North Italian faience buttons I n recent years there has been a revival of interest in the problem of the sources of faience objects from bronze age Europe (Harding, 1971 ;Newton and Renfrew, 1970;Harding and Warren, 1973). As a contribution to this debate it is worth drawing attention to a group of faience buttons from bronze age sites in the Po Valley.
t Museo Nazionale di Antichith, Parma. I am grateful to Dotoressa Calvani for allowing me to draw these objects.
The principle period of occupation on all three sites dates to the Middle Bronze Age on the evidence of metalwork, which is in the central European tradition of Reinecke B to D (1500-1200 BC) (de Marinis, 1975). However, all the sites have produced some evidence that they may have been occupied aready during the Early Bronze Age.
In On typological grounds an early bronze age date might at first sight be suggested, since not only have buttons given way to pins as a fastening device throughout most of Europe by theend of the Early Bronze Age, but also the conical form of these Italian examples is very similar to that of the early 3 bronze age buttons in other materials with 'V' perforations, which are well represented in the Polada culture in Northern Italy itself. Faience also is a substance whose use, during the Bronze Age in Central and Western Europe, was only widespread during the Early Bronze Age. On the other hand the absence of faience buttons from the much richer early bronze age sites of the Polada culture and the close association with 'terremara' conserved in museum collections; furthermore, it allows for references to personalities associated with buildings and their contents. Provision is made for source references, and bibliographies are developed for each building.
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P L A T E I X (b): P L I O C E N E F O O T P R I N T S A T L A E T O L I L , N O R T H E R N T A N Z A N I A :
The left foot i s on the left side,followed by the right foot

P L A T E x v I I I ( a ) : ' A N C I E N T V E R M O N T '
iz Jtriicture at the Crozu Site, Woodstock, Windsor, Vernaotzt Photu: (*011l tllCI I;r,he,

P L A T E X v I I I ( b ) : A N E A R L Y N O R W E G I A N L Y R E F R O M R 0 L D A L , H O R D A L A N D ( N O R W A Y )
The R~l d a l lyre : detail from a fragmentary wall-painting on timber, now in the Histovical Museum of the University of Bergen, Norway S e e p p 140-3 I'hofo : Grtieiiie I.UILWII a b  August 1970. ( C f . Fig. I , p. 139) .see pp. 137-40

P L A T E X I X : P A L E O N E M A T O L O G Y : S O M E R E C E N T E V I D E N C E F R O M N E O L I T H I C B U L G A R I A
Photo . Copvright rerevucd, Unruevrity of Canabvidge